opening of States General of lySg 25 



with strong opposition, especially from Mounier and Mirabeau.^® 

 They saw what might be the result of it. If the third estate took 

 steps that might serve as proof that they had organized as a 

 separate chamber, the other orders would not be slow to take 

 advantage of the situation. The sending of a deputation to the 

 upper orders could easily be used as proof that the commons 

 were organized. It was the policy of those opposing Malouet's 

 motion to insist that the third estate was not an order, that it was 

 unorganized and had no power even to send a deputation to the 

 other orders. ^^ The result of the discussion was that it was 

 decided to take no action whatever, but simply to wait for the two 

 upper orders to come to terms. ^® 



It was evidently soon after this decision had been reached that 

 the question came up as to what should be done with certain 

 letters addressed to the third estate.^^ Biauzat says that the 

 letters were stamped at Paris, and on one was written, " Im- 

 portant and very pressing information." The proposal to open 

 the letters met with strong opposition, some of the deputies con- 

 tending that there was some intrigue connected with the letters, 

 for otherwise the persons who wrote them would have had the 

 matter contained in them brought up in a regular manner by some 

 of the deputies. The first decision was against opening the 

 letters. The subject, however, was brought up repeatedly, 



i<^ Duquesnoy, I, 9; Biauzat, II, 36; Monitcur, I, 27. Duquesnoy and 

 Biauzat agree that Mirabeau opposed this motion. The Moniteur alone 

 mentions Mounier's position. I have not discovered the source used by 

 the editors for this statement. It will be remembered that the numbers 

 of iht Moniteur for May to November, 1789, were not composed until 1795. 



1" Duquesnoy, I, 10; Lettres du Comte de Mirabeau, No. i, 12. Duques- 

 noy says : " Le comte de Mirabeau s'y opposait, sous pretexte que nous ne 

 sommes pas une assemblee, mais une agregation, une collection d'hommes, 

 un club d'amis, qui ne peuvent pas faire de deputation." 



^® Biauzat, II, 2>i; Duquesnoy, I, 9; Recit des seances des deputes des 

 communes, 6; Boulle in Revue de la revolution, X, Documents inedits, 169. 



19 Biauzat, II, ^:i, 34; Lettres de Mirabeau, No. 2, 17. It is not possible 

 to determine exactly the order of events here. In the Lettres de Mirabeau, 

 the writer makes no attempt to give the events in chronological order, and 

 hence, in this instance, Biauzat is the only source by which to determine 

 the order of events. 



227 



